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Financial institutions lost GH¢244m to financial fraud in 2016

The principal consultant of the e-Crime Bureau, Alex Oppong said that some of these crimes were masterminded with the support of insiders.

This was disclosed by the principal consultant of the e-Crime Bureau, a private cyber security company Alex Oppong at a Seminar on Cyber Security for the clients of NDK Financial Services Limited on the theme: The Emergence of Cyber Crime Activities and its Effects on Businesses.”

According to him, the cases included the suppression of customer accounts by the staff of financial institutions, card fraud, forgery and alteration of documents, manipulation of accounts and negotiable instruments.

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Others were the fraudulent collection of international remittances by persons not named as recipients, transactions involving cloned and stolen cheques and fraudulent transfers through hacked email accounts.

The monetary value involved in the cases (both successful and attempted) was about GH¢244.32 million.

Mr Oppong said that some of these crimes were masterminded with the support of insiders.

Some experts have said that this is a wakeup call for banks to invest more in protecting their networks against cyber-attack.

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The Head of ICT at the Central bank Michael Mensah said they are doing all they can to protect clients.

“So far the [Central] bank has prepared the banking sector cyber information security guidelines to protect consumers and create a safer environment for online and e-service products. Among others, the guidelines seek to create a secure environment for a transaction within the cyberspace and guarantee trust and confidence in ICT systems,” said Michael Mensah, Head of ICT at the Central bank.

He continued “we will provide an assurance framework for the design of security policies in compliance with global security standards and best practices by way of cyber and information security assessment.”

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